The Great Gods
The Great Gods The Great Gods are the coequals with the High God. Although they were ultimately conjured and thus not perfectly original, the High God imparted into them all of the memories and experiences of the High God's life outside of existence so that they are essentially indistinguishable from the High God. As such, they are all-powerful, capable of conjuring even the universe. At all times, one of the Great Gods is rotated outside the realm of existence into the Void. This One actively sustains the universe, using the immense power of Godhood to sustain all things while the other thirteen Great Gods work within the realm of existence. This office rotates. The Conjuration of the Great Gods The High God conjured the Great Gods. The reasons stated at the time was that the High God wished to both be the conjurer and sustainer of the universe, and an active participant within it. Therefore, the High God split itself into thirteen coequal, undiminished other selves. The High God named each of them, shaping them and distinguishing them from each other. For this reason, the Great Gods are also called the First Named. The Names of the Great Gods The Great Gods each have a unique name given by the High God at the moment of creation. However, due to the events surrounding the Unnaming, they have all forgotten this unique name. This is why the Great Gods, alone of all creation, cannot be bound by their names. The names used by worshippers, and even between the Great Gods in conversation, are nicknames used as stopgap measures until their original names are restored. These nicknames are: # Wanderer # Builder # Legislator # Blazer # Gambler # Temperate # Libertine # Scarred God # Ruler # Carbon # Dissolute # Golden # Dread Eztel, who was sundered apart in the creation of Magical Aspecting, has no nickname and is the only Great God whose true name is known. However, her form gives substance to the entire universe and her name has no power and all power simultaneously. It is well known that one of the Great Gods listed above is the High God and thus the ultimate power of the universe. However, since the High God too has forgotten god's own name, it is a matter of pure speculation which of the thirteen extant gods is the High God. Almost all major religions in the conjured lands spring from interpreting one or more of the Great Gods as the High God. Dread and Carbon have both disavowed being the High God, as has Gambler. Gambler, however, is universally considered incapable of speaking pure truth and frequently says things that even the Pure Sight of Blazer cannot discern the truth of. Aspecting of the Great Gods When the Unnaming forced all of the Great Gods to forget their original names and power, they oriented themselves according to various aspects of Eztel's design for the universe. The precise nature of these aspects is open to debate, especially the aspecting agent known as "evil". The Great Gods were essentially amoral before the evolution of life, acting according to divine logic that did not require morality. This is because the Great Gods were equals in power and knowledge. Neither good nor evil could exist in this realm of perfect equality. The Unnaming and the evolution of life forced the Great Gods to adopt moral stands. These moral stands created the magical aspects which power the magic of the conjured lands. The two most common aspecting agents are good vs evil and order vs chaos. It is said that the Great Gods created the aspects as they responded to the Murder of Eztel and the War of the Gods. History of the Great Gods The Original Conjuration The Great Gods are the conjuration of the High God. Due to the Unnaming, the High God is now included in the thirteen Great Gods who administer the world. Originally, one of the Great Gods conjured all of the others. The reasons is widely speculated on, although the need to maintain the universe while simultaneously working as a participant within the universe is often cited. It is uncertain how many universes the High God conjured. It is widely speculated that the Great Gods were not the first conjuration and that a prior world existed in which the High God was the sole conjurer. Eztel, however, is the only creature alive that would have any memory of this. The Murder of Eztel Eztel was the beloved of the Great Gods, the one that all others adored. Although all Great Gods are coequal, their distinction from one another makes for personalities. Eztel was widely considered the greatest, cleverest and most beautiful of the Great Gods. For reasons unknown to anyone but Eztel herself, Eztel was torn apart by one or more of the Great Gods and her form fed to the universe in the creation of magic. Attempts to Reconstitute Eztel It is believed that there were several attempts to reconstitute Eztel. Most of these failed for one reason or the other. In order to reconstitute Eztel, a Great God had to give her form and pull her mind back into that form. Several times, they failed to recreate her form, leaving her consciousness inhabiting random or even wandering physical spaces. This led to the so-called Portals of Divinity. At other times, they failed to even find her consciousness, giving rise to massive, godlike forms that have no sentience but a great deal of power. Attempts to Substitute Other Gods for Eztel It is known that at some point some Great God attempted to substitute itself for Eztel's form. This is widely regarded to be an admission of guilt by the murderer (or a second victim). It is unknown who attempted this or why they failed. The War of the Great Gods The murder of Eztel led to a conflict between the Great Gods as every god and goddess blamed one another for the destruction of Eztel. In this fight, the evil-aspected gods (now called Libertine, Scarred and Ruler) built enormous Riveners with the strength to rival the Great Gods but without the intelligence or will to conjure or create. These abominations came close to ending the universe, since their erratic and destructive behavior made sustaining the universe more than even several Great Gods combined could handle. Eventually, five Great Gods (Dread, Wanderer, Gambler, Golden and Carbon) were required to work simultaneously to maintain the existence of the universe. Faced with the destruction of the universe, the evil-aspected gods regretted making the Riveners. However, they had made the Riveners strong enough to fight even the Great Gods themselves. When Libertine and Scarred went out to kill their creations, Libertine was poisoned and Scarred was ripped up enough to acquire his nickname. For this reasons, anyone who uses Libertine magic goes insane eventually, and the price for using Scarred magic is amputation of something integral to the user. Good-aspected gods (Builder, Legislator) and some neutrals (Blazer, Temperate) created the Paladins of Light to hunt the Riveners. The Paladins were the original magic users, capable of using Eztel's own blood as well as their godlike powers to overcome the Riveners. It is unknown how many Riveners were originally made (due to the Unnaming) but it is known that almost a hundred Paladins were created. This did not eradicate the Riveners, but it did force them to stop threatening the existence of the universe. The Unnaming The War of the Great Gods nearly ended all creation. After the Paladins and the Great Gods killed or contained the Riveners in their prisons, it was decided that all memory of Eztel, her murder and her murderer would be wiped from the memory of all creation. Using the combined power of thirteen omnipotent deities and almost a hundred Paladins, they wiped all trace of these events from the universe and their own minds. This included wiping the traces of their own names out of their consciousness, so that if they missed any clue as to the events which proceeded the Unnaming no one could discover who had participated in what. Only Eztel, whose mind was fractured and spread across the universe, and Gambler escaped this purge. It is unknown how Gambler escaped, or if he faked escaping. This event is called the Unnaming. Much that baffles was forgotten at this time. The Paladins were allowed to retain a memory of their triumph over the Riveners, in case they broke out of their prisons. This and Eztel-worshippers are the primary source for knowledge about events before the Unnaming. As an aside, Gambler and Wanderer have both suggested that the creation of humanity happened before or during the Unnaming. The exact reason for this creation is now forgotten. Although "creation" refers mostly to a genetic design released into the nascent stages of life restarting after the War of the Great Gods, it was paramount that humanity be created. Wanderer has devoted large portions of his time to discovering why. The Great Peace The period immediately after the Unnaming is called the Great Peace. This was a time of almost complete stability when the shape of the universe developed into its current scientific and magical form. The Great Withdrawal The development of sentient life prompted what is called the Great Withdrawal, when the Great Gods began taking an inactive or observatory role in the affairs of the universe. The system of using Paladins, Mejori, or even naturally evolved life to declare their sentiments and will developed at this time. What precisely they are doing with the majority of their time is unknown except to themselves. Occasionally, they still intervene on behalf of their worshippers. The Great Gods and Aspecting Every god has a Magical Aspect he, she, they or it are a patron of. Each god or goddess is considered the most powerful practitioner of this aspect of magic, although they are also proficient in all others due to their omnipotence. Their names are often invoked when working spells in a particular aspect. Chaos Gods * Wanderer - aligned with Good/Assent * Blazer - aligned with Neutral * Libertine - aligned with Evil/Fidelity Gods of Order * Legislator - aligned with Good/Assent * Temperate - aligned with Neutral * Ruler - aligned with Evil/Fidelity * The Paladins (can use all alignments of magic but tend to rely on neutral contracts made directly with Eztel through the Portals of Divinity). Gods of Neutrality * Builder - aligned with Good/Assent * Gambler - purely Neutral, god(dess) of risk and of objectivity * Scarred God - aligned with Evil/Fidelity Gods of Assent * Wanderer * Legislator * Builder Gods of Fidelity * Libertine * Ruler * Scarred Gods of Essence * Carbon - amoral * Dissolute - amoral, goddess of death * Golden - amoral, god of light Disordered Gods A disordered god is one known to exist but whose aspect is unknown. This may be due to dissolution (Eztel), to absence (the High God) or to lack of sentience (the Riveners).